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Spade A or Spade J


kgr

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[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sakj732h9dkqt8cq4&s=s86haq84d9643cjt3]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv]

p-(p)-1S-(p)

1NT!-(p)-2C!-(p)-

2D-(p)-2S-AP

 

1NT=Not forcing, but can include 3cS and 4-7 pts

2C=strong, asking

2D=weak, nothing to say

 

LHO leads 3 (3th or 5th) and I played A and took the -finesse.

According to analysis in Jack it is better to play A iso of finesse in trick 2.

A=117.8

J=89.2

Can someone explain why? Is playing from the top always better if you only have one entry?

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I am not sure what your numbers mean, but I believe they might have something to do with the fact that spade fienese risks a diamond ruff, and even more, it risks not scoring ever the 4th diamond if the defence forces you constantly even with trumps 3-2.
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According to analysis in Jack

 

Interesting, can you say more about how such analysis works ? I may consider buying the program :)

 

Can someone explain why? Is playing from the top always better if you only have one entry?

 

Finessing is better considering alone for sure.

 

Relevant layouts are:

 

Qxx to xx (6 cases)

xxx to Qx (4 cases)

xxxx to Q (1case)

Qxxx to x (4cases)

QT9xx to void (1case)

 

In remaining 16 (all 2-3 breaks, 1-4 breaks and 0-5 breaks) it doesn't matter)

 

You gain a trick by finessing in 11 of those while you gain a tricks by playing on top in only 5 of those.

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[snip]

Well if Jack is right(the program not the card) then can someone please explain how I screwed up the chart that follows

 

LHO RHO

hold hold Play J tr lost Play A tr lost Which wins

QT954 - 2 3 J wins

T954 Q 2 1 A wins

Q954 T 1 2 J wins

QT54 9 1 2 J wins

QT94 5 1 2 J wins

QT95 4 1 2 J wins

954 QT 1 0 A wins

T54 Q9 1 0 A wins

T94 Q5 1 0 A wins

T95 Q4 1 0 A wins

Q54 T9 0 1 J wins

Q94 T5 0 1 J wins

Q95 T4 0 1 J wins

QT4 95 0 1 J wins

QT5 94 0 1 J wins

QT9 54 0 1 J wins

QT 954 0 0 No difference

Q9 T54 0 0 No difference

Q5 T94 0 0 No difference

Q4 T95 0 0 No difference

T9 Q54 1 1 No difference

T5 Q94 1 1 No difference

T4 Q95 1 1 No difference

95 QT4 1 1 No difference

94 QT5 1 1 No difference

54 QT9 1 1 No difference

Q T954 1 1 No difference

T Q954 2 2 No difference

9 QT54 2 2 No difference

5 QT94 2 2 No difference

4 QT95 2 2 No difference

- QT954 3 3 No difference

- - 30 36

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pooltuna the spade suit in vacuum is best played small to jack but there are other factors which make the Ace better (see Fluffy's post). Jack was talking about the whole hand and the contract, not just the spade suit
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I don't get it either.

 

First, it's MP not IMP. So spurning the % play in trumps is investing some fraction of a trick, even after discounting because of the possible ruff.

 

Being forced out of trumps doesn't seem to me a legitimate concern. If trumps are 3-2 or the J comes down, you can't be tapped out. If trumps are 4-1 and the J is a loser, then you have 6 losers and are down anyway -- except if it's Qxxx onside, then only NOT finessing allows those bad things to happen.

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- I'm not sure if I can enter in Jack that it is MP's, so yes the calculation is done in IMP's.

- In Jack you can after every card do double dummy analysis (ctrl-D) or analyze the position (ctrl-A).

- Analyze the position will deal 1000 possible hands and do a double dummy analysis on them. I'm not sure what it takes into account for the possible hand, but it somehow looks at the bidding and play. (Eg if I lead from KJ52 the 2 or the 5 then that will give a different result; because Jack will think I have 3 or 4 cards in that suit). The analyze position will show and adapt the result after every hand until it has done 1000 and you can interrupt before if it is already clear. It is amazingly fast.

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I think the difference between going down and making the contract = or +1 is a big factor here. If you go down it's -100, if you make +110 or +140. So your average goes down a lot for rare situations like Q stiff behind or a possible ruff. You can lose a pretty safely and still make your contract, but not if you lose it while it's not necessary. Oh btw, you can even go down a lot more than 1 if there are multiple ruffs!

 

Can you try this NV please?

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with only 1000 hands analyced I'd say you got a set that favours A because the difference seems very huge to me.

Most of the time when I do this the result will remain the same if I do it again. 1000 seems to be a big enough sample.

A bit more samples:

SK: 115.2 SJ:85.9

SK: 116.6 SJ:88.3

SK: 117.4 SJ:87.5

SK: 117.6 SJ:86.4

Remark: If RHO plays on trick 1 the 7 iso 2 then the figures change a bit (low is encouraging):

SK: 111.3 SJ:84.5

SK: 111.3 SJ:87.8

SK: 113.0 SJ:85.9

(BTW: LHO had Q singleton)

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Can you try this NV please?

NV (probably closer to MP's)

SK: 118.3 SJ:101.1

SK: 119.6 SJ:103.8

=> It could well be that SJ is the best play at MP's.

Since the average score for J goes up and the score for K remains pretty much the same (slight increase), I suspect that the frequency of going down has a considerable influence on the average score.

 

If the J wins you get a good MP score

If the J loses you get an average or poor MP score

Bluntly speaking you might conclude that the J will be a good MP score around 50% of the time, will be average 25% and will be poor 25%. This means it's a good MP choice to play the J (62.5%).

At imps, if you go down your average sinks to the ground, at MP it doesn't. The fact that Jack doesn't count in MP but in points explains the difference in play.

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At imps, if you go down your average sinks to the ground, at MP it doesn't.  The fact that Jack doesn't count in MP but in points explains the difference in play.

This may explain Jack's thinking, but I don't think it is correct analysis.

 

Finessing loses the contract only if it loses, the opponents then get a diamond ruff, and they still score two diamond tricks. Unlikely the opening leader (East) has a singleton diamond, or will manage to shift from AJxxx. Hence the danger is substantially the chance that West can win a shift and get a ruff. That's 4-5% assuming the imaginative shift from East.

 

Finessing gains the contract when Qxxx(x) is onside and there are two natural losers. Counting only Qxxx, that's about 7.5%.

 

Hence even if overtricks were negligible compared to the big fat partscore bonus :( I'd finesse as the best chance to make 2. But really, even the overtricks from finessing may well overwhelm the small chance of a ruff defeat.

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hey ceeb, I said this earlier, but I'll remind you, if you have 2 diamonds losers, spades are 3-2 and K is offside 5th, you get tapped and you do not ever make your 4th diamond. losing 1, 2 2 and the last trick in hearts.
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hey ceeb, I said this earlier, but I'll remind you, if you have 2 diamonds losers, spades are 3-2 and K is offside 5th, you get tapped and you do not ever make your 4th diamond. losing 1, 2 2 and the last trick in hearts.

How so? If trumps are 3-2, we're 3 longer in trumps than the opponent. If we let them in 3 times with Q, A, J and get tapped each time, we'll have equal length (all trumps gone assuming we pulled trumps when able) and we'll be on lead. At that point we cash the long .

 

Hence the only cost from being tapped out is a possible extra down-trick when are 4-1.

 

(I did see your first message in which you mentioned generally the danger of being tapped and I acknowledged that claim in my initial analysis.)

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